What's new

International VEG/Shock's "Hollywood Gold" series upgrades titles to Blu (Australia) (1 Viewer)

classicmovieguy

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Aug 18, 2011
Messages
3,353
Location
Australia
Real Name
Byron
The "Hollywood Gold" series in Australia, initially released by Visual Entertainment Group (but since taken over by Shock Entertainment), has been adding more and more titles to it's range in the last few months, but perhaps most excitingly, is upgrading several of it's releases to Blu-ray.

Announced for July are the following titles:
 

Attachments

  • timthumb (2).jpg
    timthumb (2).jpg
    30.4 KB · Views: 124
  • timthumb (1).jpg
    timthumb (1).jpg
    32.3 KB · Views: 127
  • timthumb (3).jpg
    timthumb (3).jpg
    26.3 KB · Views: 121
  • timthumb (4).jpg
    timthumb (4).jpg
    27.9 KB · Views: 121
  • timthumb (5).jpg
    timthumb (5).jpg
    24.7 KB · Views: 123
  • timthumb.jpg
    timthumb.jpg
    28.1 KB · Views: 123

Robin9

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 13, 2006
Messages
7,637
Real Name
Robin
Several of those titles have already come out on BRD in Europe. I assume they use the same transfers. Journey To The Centre Of The Earth was a rapid Twilight Time sell-out so people who left it too late now have a second chance.
 

Ed Lachmann

Screenwriter
Joined
Mar 17, 2011
Messages
1,733
Real Name
Edmund Lachmann
Shock Australia also released a BD of TARAS BULBA a few years back and is still the only company to have done so. The quality was wonderful. I'd love to see them do KINGS OF THE SUN, SOLOMON AND SHEBA and THE VIKINGS!
 

classicmovieguy

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Aug 18, 2011
Messages
3,353
Location
Australia
Real Name
Byron
I'm looking forward to the three September releases. "Midnight Lace" has already been out in Germany on Blu-ray but the reviews I've read haven't been very positive, saying it's not much better than the DVD - hoping it's another story here.
 

classicmovieguy

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Aug 18, 2011
Messages
3,353
Location
Australia
Real Name
Byron
I have received the 2 titles I most wanted from the July discs - "Lifeboat" and "The Unforgiven" - and I think Shock is definity onto a winner with their decision to upgrade selected 'Hollywood Gold' titles to Blu.

"Lifeboat" has all the extras from the UK 'Masters of Cinema' release and has English subs (none of the standard DVD 'Hollywood Gold' titles has ever come with subs and only recently have some of the titles featured any kind of extra features). Print-wise it looks very crisp with lots of detail - very much superior to the DVD in every way.

I only quickly spot-checked "The Unforgiven" yesterday afternoon after the disc arrived in the mail, but from what I saw the print looks OK - but I think it has been the victim of the DNR gremlins. It's a bit "waxy".
 

classicmovieguy

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Aug 18, 2011
Messages
3,353
Location
Australia
Real Name
Byron
"Exodus" and "Night of the Hunter" both arrived this morning. I briefly spot-checked both titles.

"Exodus" looks quite clean, with minimal manipulation, as far as DNR goes. I only watched the opening titles leading into the start of the film. The titles actually looked quite ragged, and were slightly pillar-boxed. Things open up well when the film actually starts, though. No extras.

img621.jpg


"Night of the Hunter" looks great, probably on par with Criterion's transfer but minus the extras package, except for the "Making Of" featurette featuring F.X. Feeney, et al.

img622.jpg


And I forgot that I didn't post the full cover for "The Unforgiven" - here it is...

img620.jpg
 

classicmovieguy

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Aug 18, 2011
Messages
3,353
Location
Australia
Real Name
Byron
Cover art for September's release of "Journey to the Centre of the Earth". This will be the most popular title in the Blu series, I'm sure, because of the now sold-out TT release.

timthumb.jpg
 

ShowsOn

Second Unit
Joined
Mar 21, 2011
Messages
253
Real Name
Simon Howson
I've got Exodus and Man of the West and think the transfers are pretty good considering they only cost $14 each at JB Hifi.

Exodus is dual layer whereas Man of the West is single layer.
 

Doug Bull

Advanced Member
Joined
May 7, 2001
Messages
1,544
Location
Melbourne, Australia
Real Name
Doug Bull
Even as a local I tend to be very cautious regarding the picture quality of Australian classic DVD releases.
I previously burnt my fingers on a couple of sub standard Bounty Western titles.

Where do these Fox titles originate from?
If it is so hard for the top studios to re-master older classic titles for Blu-ray, then how does a small Australian company manage it

Doctor Dolittle interests me, but I will need to see some decent reviews before I part with the hard earned.
 

classicmovieguy

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Aug 18, 2011
Messages
3,353
Location
Australia
Real Name
Byron
They've all been licenced via 'Hollywood Classics', a European company which handles the home video and/or cinema distribution of titles on the behalf of the various studios. In the case of the Blu-ray titles, I believe VEG has been able to utilise the HD masters from other labels, as I'm 99% positive "Lifeboat" was the same transfer and extras package from the UK 'Masters of Cinema' release.

The Bounty titles are a different kettle of fish.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest Articles

Forum statistics

Threads
356,710
Messages
5,121,133
Members
144,146
Latest member
SaladinNagasawa
Recent bookmarks
0
Top